Winding Down

I don't know where the time has gone.  Here it is mid April, and I feel like the school year was just starting, that we were just celebrating Christmas, and now here we are at the end of the school year.  I am so proud of the girls and how much they have grown, changed, and matured in one year.  I look back at the pictures from a year ago, and I can hardly believe it is the same child.  Tonight we were going through the old bins of clothing, get ready to purge out, sell, garage sale, donate....and anything else to spring clean.  It is shocking to see how small they once were.

Paulita has become quite the school girl.  She entered school, embraced it, learned how to read, write, add, and subtact.  Much more then I ever imagined from kindergarten and the remembrances of what my kindergarten year was full of playing school, house, blocks, and art projects.  I have smiled at each new discovery made, friendship formed,  and world problem she has taken on.  Paulita remains today, yesterday, and always my free spirit.  Miguel and I just love her to pieces and smile everytime we are reminded at how much she is completely him.  She loves nature, art, camping, planting, science, learning about other countries, and American Girls.  She has become quite the ballerina and has started tap dancing this year.  She says ballet is her favorite activity.  In judo, we have watched her inner tiger emerge, we know that she is not about to let anyone walk all over her.  After Christmas she started taking piano lessons, and tommorrow is her debut in her first recital.  She loves memorizing music and composing her own songs.  We are very proud of our little lady.

Sara is and will always be an inspiration to us.  She has grown leaps and bounds and we are completely in awe with her.  This fall she said goodbye to the days of parent tot ballet and emerged as a passionate ballerina.  One ballet class a week was not enough for this serious little student, so she began taking two days a week, and learning to tap dance.  She fell in love with the stage, the lights, the flowers, and the audience by appearing as the youngest cast member of the Nutcracker preforming at a local university with proffessional dancers.  Not a day goes by when the little princess doesn't beg me to take her to dance and to see her ballet teachers.  She wants to know when she can preform on the big stage in Chicago and every table top, hand rail, and bar that is waist high becomes a ballet bar.  She is soon to make her debut in her first recital, and the countdown has begun.  When she is not dancing she is watching movies about ballerinas, video clips on youtube about proffessional ballerinas, reading biographies about dancers from the library with Mommy, and watching the movie of the Nutcracker memorizing every part she aspires to be and how and when they enter and exit the stage and the positions of all the dancers on the stage......and yes she is only 3. In February she started participating in therapuetic horseback riding.  She quickly fell in love with this also, and the best part it is so good for her.  She continues to make slow and steady progress with her arm, and we couldn't be happier.  She has brought a light to our life, an appreciation of what we take for granted, and is truly in every way my little buddy.

As summer approaches, we look forward to spending time as a family as Miguel is off for the summer.  The girls love being able to spend time with him, and I love having help with the kids!! We hope everyone has a wonderful end of the school year and many fun filled summer adventures.

~ Betsy